Happy Father's Day (to me)

1. Just kidding! Of course, Father's Day is for the fathers. But the fact is, I got to lay in my bed this morning and read my book for, like, and hour and a half. Now. I don't care what anybody says....that made me feel like the queen of the day...like good things were comin my way....like it was Maren's Day.

2. Mark arrived home from his trip to Arkansas at about 11 am. You would be amazed what can be done in the space of an hour when you have 6 kids (4 of them fairly capable of actually helping) and a GPS tracker on your husbands phone. Ethan cleared the countertops, Megan cleared the table and then started in on a Father's Day banner made from the never-ending roll of pink paper I got for free at the church about 8 years ago, Mathew tackled the living room and I got the Pork Barbacoa in the crockpot. From time to time I would check Mark's GPS whereabouts and call out, "WE'VE GOT 13 MINUTES! HURRY!!!"

At 11 he walked into a pretty clean house (ie. lower floor), dinner in the crockpot, a child in time out, and the rest of us out of breath. If I'd had just 10 more minutes, I would have changed out of my pajamas and possibly even put on some deodorant.  Ah well, one can't have everything. It's not Christmas, you know.

3. We were only 6 minutes late to church today. That's progress, folks.

4. The pork barbacoa was delicious. It's hard not to go overboard and make myself so full I'm physically ill. I had two of my own, made up another half in Everly's leftover tortilla cast off and threw my pride aside and ate Anna's old cold one right off her plate while I was rinsing the dishes.

Shameful.

5. Mark was the man of the hour and, as usual, has a way of making everyone smile when he is opening his cards. It's one of the things I love about him.

I can see him trying not to hulk out...he has a bit of claustrophobia.

Also. I think he is pretty darn cute.

Happy Father's Day, Mark. You definitely earned it!